Americans Stay Together

This podcast urges Americans to avoid slipping carelessly into internal hostilities

Transcript

Good morning, I’m Frank Kaufmann. 

I have a word or two to say on the current direction and situation in the United States of America. To make my point I want to use as a backdrop the current tragic conflict going on in Israel, Palestine, Israel and Gaza. I have opinions on all the players or the players in both countries. I have opinions on the political and historical religious situation in Israel, as well as opinions, on the political and ideological spiritual interpretation of American life. But I want to leave these out because my point is not to argue for the right or wrong of one side or the other, but just to simply point out a very important point which I feel Americans should be greatly warned. 

I think that America is one of the only democracies, on earth, that has a simple two party system. It never succeeded to establish anything other than two opposite parties. Third party efforts have never resulted in good success. If there’s any success at all in third parties, it is quite remarkable, it’s newsworthy. But they never ascend to challenge the power of the two parties. Many people understand and recognize that having only two parties is a great danger for sustaining a harmonious democracy, because people tend to be bifurcated in their point of view. Other democracies in other countries in the world almost always have multi party systems. The interesting thing about multi-party systems is that each side has to try to form a coalition in order to attain a majority whereby their coalition rules. And so, in order to carry out the political dialogue, necessary to forge a coalition to attain a majority. 

What is naturally involved is finer nuance about difference if you are trying to create parties that have things in common. In the United States, you just have the left and the right. It’s winner take all through elections. Or at least until recently it was through elections. People will say that it’s a bad idea, it’s bad for America. America is more primitive in its political approach to things in its political understanding. It’s more vulnerable to extreme differences and extremism in America. 

But I believe that this was almost a dispensation or providentially a deliberate thing, because America is two things. It’s the wealthiest and most powerful nation ever. And simultaneously, it is the nation that desires the greatest guarantee of rights for citizens ever conceived of in history. Citizens have divine rights! Just like there used to be the divine rights of kings. That exact same extreme authority rests in every single individual US citizen. Your right to free speech, your right to freedom of religion, your rights to a fair and speedy trial. These equalities that are defined for the United States citizens are extreme. They are inviolable. They are divine rights. They are as powerful as the way kings used to rule. Every citizen has this!. 

So here you have a place with the greatest enticement for corruption, its wealth is unbound. Its power is unbound. And it is rife for extreme division, left and right. Now, if people have these two political persuasions, are not able to be in dialogue in conversation with one another and resort to legislative and judicial efforts to destroy the other. What we will end up with is our two communities that are defining the land in opposite ways, this is exactly what Israel Palestine is all about. This is exactly why there is consistent recurrence of violence in Israel, because there are people who cannot agree on what the land is right now, there are two groups in America. One says the land is the fruit of oppressive individuals who invested in the history of oppression and exploitation. The other group sees the land as an experiment of constant striving by its citizens as leaders to attain the greatest ideal of every person with each one having as much power as the most powerful, from the least powerful to the most powerful, our rights come from God. And no one can take them away. No matter how powerful you might be. And everyone’s right to justice is exactly the same. More powerful doesn’t mean that your trial goes better. 

Now, the problem is that these ideals are constantly being violated. It’s in no way the case that everyone is exactly equal. And that’s why we have people on the left, and people on the right who cannot see eye to eye. 

I’m not trying to get anyone on the right to change their position, and not asking anyone on the left to change their position. I’m saying just one single thing. If Americans persist in regarding people who define their land differently than me as unapproachable, there will be the constant arising of violent conflict, precisely as one sees in Israel at present. Americans must anticipate the extreme degree to which we are becoming divided from one another and to recognize that if this country becomes identical to the Middle East, the world will have no hope whatsoever. 

There has to be a place that continues to stand by the desire and the effort to regard every individual with divine inalienable rights. So, I pray and ask Americans, whether you’re on the left, whether you’re on the right. Please do not participate in the purpose of division and disregard and treat with hostility those who define our country differently. Because once we trip into the middle of a place occupied by two people who define the land differently, there is no turning back. America will become the scene of an incessant conflict and violence, and we cannot afford this, and the world cannot afford this. 

So, I pray, and request that Americans even holding some of the most intense and strongly held political views. Please anticipate that ultimately, we must be capable of being with one another. The stakes are far too high. If we like to slip into a place that is such a tinderbox precisely like Israel and Palestine, we will enter into a period of unprecedented darkness for every human being on the planet. These are my thoughts for now. Thanks a lot for listening.